THE BULLFINCH. 
under my personal knowledge, and has never yet been printed, 
! I will tell it you. 
A musician employed at one of the London theatres possessed 
an ebony flute with silver keys. He seldom used it, however, 
i in consequence of one of the upper notes being defective. The 
musician had for a lodger a young man, a theatrical tailor, 
and between the two there existed considerable friendship, 
j Well, one night, while the musician was away at his business, 
| some one stole the flute with the silver keys, and suspicion fell 
on an old charwoman who used to come to do the housework. 
However, nothing tended to show that the old lady really was 
j guilty, and the affair was shortly forgotten. In a few months 
the tailor left the house of the musician, and went to live in a 
town a few miles off ; but as the friendship between the two men 
j still existed, they occasionally visited each other. Hear a year 
j afterwards, the musician paid the tailor a visit, and was pleased 
j to find him in possession of a splendid bullfinch, who could 
distinctly whistle three tunes. The performance was perfect, with 
this exception : whenever he came to a certain high note, he in- 
variably skipped it, and went on to the next. A very little 
reflection convinced the musician that the note in which the 
! bullfinch was imperfect was the very one that was deficient on 
l the ebony flute. So convinced was he, that he at once sharply 
questioned his ex-lodger on the subject, who at once tremblingly 
admitted his guilt, and that all the bird knew had been taught 
him on the stolen flute. 
Supposing that I chose to tresspass on other folks’ preserves, 
I could fill you a hundred of these pages, with wonderful stories 
and anecdotes of the bullfinch; indeed, some of them are so very 
wonderful as to require a much greater share of credulity than 
I possess, to be believed, nevertheless, there are stories well 
authenticated, and true beyond a doubt, that tend to prove that 
in that flat head of his, the bullfinch possesses an amount of 
intelligence, rarely displayed by another bird. 
Gilbert White, of Selborne, tells us of a bullfinch that flew 
on to the window-sill of a lady’s chamber, and remained there 
fluttering his wings, pecking at the glass, and altogether exhi- 
biting great distress. He allowed the window to be opened, 
and himself to be handled, gaping, and fluttering his wings, 
but making no effort to escape. Presently the lady discovered 
the cause of the poor bird’s tribulation, a large seed sticking 
crosswise in his throat. This she removed with the head of a 
needle, and the bullfinch was at once well. However, eased 
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